Monday, January 02, 2012

"I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves." ~Anna Quindlen

What a great way to start my blogpost. It’s a total smack down for the kind of childhood I lived and wish my future children to follow.

I don't have bookshelves but I have boxes :D

I have lived with books for as long as I can remember. I eat them for breakfast, especially when I am so eager to finish the story. I sleep with them on rainy nights when I just wish to reminisce a particular scene.

I talk to them when I don’t understand them and best of all, my fondest memories of them are in the bathroom. Yes, I read books when I am using the toilet.

If you happened to be like most kids during my age, I bet Toy Kingdom was a great go to place, or if not, Bibo or any gaming center. But for me and my sister, the only place we won’t ever get lost going to was National Bookstore.

Maybe because books were the only things that could help us escape our “realities” back then. My parents happened to be very strict about a lot of things, from no boyfriends to no going out of the house to play; it was the only thing that colored our lives, aside from each other.

even the cabinets are not spared!

I used to read the encyclopedia (forgot the title) from cover to cover out of boredom (wonder why I never got around to being a mad scientist?) and did not spare bible stories.

some of those encyclopedias are still around

But fairy tales where my most favorite! My mom bought us all the fairytale stories she could get and we read all of them. And until now, the book I consider as the best among the rest is “Beauty and the Beast”. I’m a hopeless romantic, I know.

But then Tagalog Novels came and soon became my addiction. By 10 years old, I was no longer naive to the words “kissing”, “petting” and “sex”. Blame it to the person who brought the blasted book to the house. It has replaced my fairytale stories and I began to collect them.

Have you heard of Gillian? Arielle? Or Martha Cecilia perhaps? They were my very first teachers to what true love was all about.

i like Christine Feehan

Being exposed to books all my life has developed within me a habit of sorts. I would read the end first before taking the time to read the beginning. If the end was any good, I would try reading the first few starting chapters until such a time when a particular chapter starts to drag. I would skip it and proceed to the succeeding exciting chapter until I finish the book.

So yes, there are only a few books that I have read from cover to cover but those kinds of books, I would never forget.

In a way, reading books matured me and broadened my horizons without having me leave the safety of my home. I have journeyed the Carpathian Mountains a couple of times, been to the heart of dreaming visiting my old friend Morpheus. Talked to Sun Tzu, traveled with Gulliver and had done a lot of things actual reality could not offer.

I wish a lot of people would come to realize that investing in books are not a waste. No matter how pretty you are, when your brain is empty you will always be a small character in the background, not the lead of the story.

So if you wish to be your very own hero, travel to Europe without paying for a plane ticket, buy a book. Read.